1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a sorting device, and, more particularly, to an improved sorting device coupled with an image forming apparatus which reverses a sheet image formed by the image forming apparatus and affixes a tag to the sheet image formed on its both sides.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, when an image forming apparatus such as a facsimile machine, a printer, a copy machine and so forth prints both surfaces of a sheet to make a document, one surface is printed first. The sheet is reversed and fed back to the image forming apparatus to print the second surface. After printing on the second surface, the sheet is ejected and stacked on a tray as a document. When a sheet group is taken out after completion of one document, there isn""t any inconvenience. When plural documents are sequentially ejected and stacked on one tray, it is convenient that they are sorted and ejected for each document. This is because a position for sectioning each document may be found when they are taken out.
There is well known a sorting device showing such a sectioning position provided with an offset function, in which ejecting positions of sheets are shifted for each document. A position for each sheet group providing the same document is shifted little by little, whereby the portion of such shifted position may indicate a section of the document.
Another conventional sorting device is provided with a function for inserting a ribbon between documents by putting the ribbon on a sheet ejected on a tray and subsequently ejecting a subsequent sheet on that sheet. However, the ejecting operation to the tray is halted when the ribbon is fed, resulting in the necessity of an operation time period for inserting the ribbon and the deterioration of its productivity. The ribbon is simply caught between the documents, and liable to slip off when the sheet group is taken out from the tray, so that the sorting position becomes lost.
Still another conventional sorting device is provided with a plurality of trays in which a tray to be ejected is changed for each document, resulting in bulkiness and costliness of the device, and difficulty of installing the device into a small machine.
The above-mentioned same problems are also found in a conventional document read apparatus when it ejects subsequently read sheets.
Thus the conventional sorting device, which reverses a sheet printed on one surface thereof, again feeds the sheet to the image forming apparatus to print both surfaces of the sheet, and sorts the sheet printed on both surfaces thereof, has the disadvantages that it has a low productivity or is bulky and costly, or precise sorting cannot be expected.
It is, therefore, a primary object of this invention to provide a sorting device with a simple and small construction which reverses a sheet, affixes a tag to the sheet printed on both surfaces of thereof, and easily and precisely sorts the sheet in reference to the tag.
According to this invention, there is provided a sorting device with a simple and small construction for reversing a sheet fed from an image forming device and adhering a tag to the sheet, which includes a conveyor for conveying the sheet in a first or second direction, a detector for detecting a position of the sheet conveyed by the conveyor, a switch for switching a path conveying said sheet based on a result of the detection by the detecting means, and a tag affixing device for passing the sheet when it is reversed and affixing a tag to the sheet when it is ejected, whereby the sheet is reversed, the sheet printed on both surfaces thereof is affixed by the tag, and the sheet may be easily and precisely sorted in reference to the tag.